Published in “The Manitoban,” the student newspaper of the University of Manitoba where Marshall McLuhan earned B.A. (1932) and M.A (1934) degrees in English.
by Marshall McLuhan (age 22)
19 January 1934
Clean, cold agnosticism has been compared with clean, cold water-an excellent thing if you can get it. Most modern ethical and idealistic movements have been well compared with soda-water, which is a fuss about nothing.
Shaw's philosophy has been held analogous to black coffee which awakens but does not inspire. Modern hygienic materialism has been contemptuously likened to cocoa. But what could represent spiritualism more neatly than methylated spirits?
The spiritualist invokes spirits not knowing if they are good, wise or helpful. He desires the deity but doesn't know whether he likes him. He attempts to invoke God without worshipping Him. He is curious but not joyous any more than one actually likes the taste of methylated spirits. Here is excitement without effectual satisfaction, brandy but no food. It is sheer alcoholism of the soul.
Like most things today, spiritualism is badly named; for, wherever or whenever there has been a creed or Ja religion, spiritmongers have been seen and felt to be anti-spiritual. It might be called, more correctly, spiritism. The most eminent of modern spiritists have recognized that the phenomena called spirits have no spiritual significance and have attempted to make a science of what they were quick to call a science. This was quite sound because spiritists are not any more concerned with man's relation to God than are the "departed spirits” with whom they converse.
The above sentence contains the whole matter in a bombshell. I make no claim to originality, because in so important a matter what is new is not likely to be true and what is true is not likely to be new. However it may be, in all the blasts of the spiritualists and in all the counterblasts of the conjurors the big fact has been omitted. It is this, and there is not in all mediumistic literature a shred of evidence to oppose it: Spiritistic phenomena are materialized reminiscence.
Let us admit the most extravagant claims of the spiritists. Heaven knows they are dull enough! Let us suppose that a complete stranger of high attainment goes to a seance in a skeptical mood. Let us suppose that the medium is a "very great" one indeed. It is not uninteresting to note that the "great” mediums are usually stupid people and lacking in education. It is impossible to suspect them of "faking" much that has baffled the greatest conjurors. Let us further suppose' (what in fact often happens) that our skeptical visitor suddenly is addressed by the voice of a dear friend long dead. They proceed to discuss affairs known only to them. They may do this in Sanscrit or any other language unknown to the medium. The friend may be seen or touched. He may, when questioned, say he is happy and that he sees Uncle George now and then but can't speak to him. He will never, as the rich man in the parable did, express any desire to reform the lives or ways of men.
He tells of a world beyond the grave that is absurdly dull and unattractive when it is compared with our existence. It resembles that borderland on which we hover before sound sleep. It accords perfectly with the sad and joyless ideas of ultra-existence such as flit through the minds of those who stand in need of material proof of the fact. It is a world of sickly egotistical idealism conceived by a people too sad to think of jewelled palaces and golden streets, and too unimaginative to sympathize with Dante's vivid creation. If theirs is the world beyond the grave, then terrible is the victory of the grave and savage beyond imagination is the sting of death.
The choicest phenomena, and those by which any spiritist society would choose to be judged, are all in the category I have indicated. There are many other types of a more questionable nature which can't be discussed here. But the sort I have mentioned have fascinated many people. They are hoodooed because some of their past is rematerialized for them. The manner in which this is done is just as unknown to us as was the nature of the power of the lodestone to an olden time and is on precisely the same plane. Mediums are people who possess a vestigial sixth sense which is still common among primitive types of people. It is an excellent subject for research, but it is nothing more. Ghosts, it need not be said, are an entirely different sort of phenomena than spirits. No medium will ever get a message from the Flying Dutchman or will ever entertain his adherents with a version of the phantom lorry-bus that has been seen of late in London. These belong to a much, much loftier type of experience …
by Marshall McLuhan (age 22)
19 January 1934
Clean, cold agnosticism has been compared with clean, cold water-an excellent thing if you can get it. Most modern ethical and idealistic movements have been well compared with soda-water, which is a fuss about nothing.
Shaw's philosophy has been held analogous to black coffee which awakens but does not inspire. Modern hygienic materialism has been contemptuously likened to cocoa. But what could represent spiritualism more neatly than methylated spirits?
The spiritualist invokes spirits not knowing if they are good, wise or helpful. He desires the deity but doesn't know whether he likes him. He attempts to invoke God without worshipping Him. He is curious but not joyous any more than one actually likes the taste of methylated spirits. Here is excitement without effectual satisfaction, brandy but no food. It is sheer alcoholism of the soul.
Like most things today, spiritualism is badly named; for, wherever or whenever there has been a creed or Ja religion, spiritmongers have been seen and felt to be anti-spiritual. It might be called, more correctly, spiritism. The most eminent of modern spiritists have recognized that the phenomena called spirits have no spiritual significance and have attempted to make a science of what they were quick to call a science. This was quite sound because spiritists are not any more concerned with man's relation to God than are the "departed spirits” with whom they converse.
The above sentence contains the whole matter in a bombshell. I make no claim to originality, because in so important a matter what is new is not likely to be true and what is true is not likely to be new. However it may be, in all the blasts of the spiritualists and in all the counterblasts of the conjurors the big fact has been omitted. It is this, and there is not in all mediumistic literature a shred of evidence to oppose it: Spiritistic phenomena are materialized reminiscence.
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| Marshall McLuhan, 1933 |
He tells of a world beyond the grave that is absurdly dull and unattractive when it is compared with our existence. It resembles that borderland on which we hover before sound sleep. It accords perfectly with the sad and joyless ideas of ultra-existence such as flit through the minds of those who stand in need of material proof of the fact. It is a world of sickly egotistical idealism conceived by a people too sad to think of jewelled palaces and golden streets, and too unimaginative to sympathize with Dante's vivid creation. If theirs is the world beyond the grave, then terrible is the victory of the grave and savage beyond imagination is the sting of death.
The choicest phenomena, and those by which any spiritist society would choose to be judged, are all in the category I have indicated. There are many other types of a more questionable nature which can't be discussed here. But the sort I have mentioned have fascinated many people. They are hoodooed because some of their past is rematerialized for them. The manner in which this is done is just as unknown to us as was the nature of the power of the lodestone to an olden time and is on precisely the same plane. Mediums are people who possess a vestigial sixth sense which is still common among primitive types of people. It is an excellent subject for research, but it is nothing more. Ghosts, it need not be said, are an entirely different sort of phenomena than spirits. No medium will ever get a message from the Flying Dutchman or will ever entertain his adherents with a version of the phantom lorry-bus that has been seen of late in London. These belong to a much, much loftier type of experience …
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